This invention relates to systems that support an interactive television program guide application and non-guide applications. More particularly, the invention relates to systems in which non-guide applications can use both device resources and program guide resources.
Cable, satellite, and broadcast television systems provide viewers with a large number of television channels. Viewers have traditionally consulted printed television program schedules to determine the programs being broadcast at a particular time. More recently, interactive electronic television program guides have been developed that allow television program information to be displayed on a viewer""s television.
Interactive program guides are typically implemented on set-top boxes. Such program guides allow users to access television program listings in different display formats. For example, a user may desire to view a grid of program listings organized in a channel-ordered list. Alternatively, the user may desire to view program listings organized by time, by theme (movies, sports, etc.), or by title (i.e., alphabetically ordered).
A user may also select a program for viewing or recording from the program guide. For example, the user may place a highlight region on top of a desired program listing and press a xe2x80x9crecordxe2x80x9d button on a remote control. Pay programs may be ordered by placing the highlight region on a pay program listing and pressing an xe2x80x9corderxe2x80x9d button. Some program guides allow parents to block certain television programs based on criteria such as ratings information.
It would be desirable if the set-top box on which the interactive program guide is implemented could be used to support other applications in addition to the program guide application. For example, the user of the set-top box might wish to use the set-top box to implement an Internet browser application, a video-on-demand application, an interactive promotional channel application, a shopping application, etc. However, previously known program guide systems have generally been designed to run only one application at a time. With these systems the currently running application typically has exclusive control of set-top box resources such the on-screen display, tuner, remote control interface, light-emitting diodes, communications channels, etc. This may lead to conflicts. For example, if a non-guide application is running when the program guide application would normally have issued a reminder (e.g., for an upcoming television event), the user may not be able to receive the reminder. Moreover, the relatively high-level resources of the program guide application (such as parental control, program guide database access functions, etc.) have been unavailable to non-guide applications.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an interactive television program guide system in which a program guide application and other applications may be implemented on the same set-top box and in which non-guide applications may use program guide resources.
This and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing an interactive program guide system which supports a program guide application and multiple non-guide applications. The system may be implemented on a set-top box or a comparable hardware platform. The program guide application runs on the set-top box to provide an interactive display of television program listings. A user may use the program guide to search for listings based on keywords, to order pay programs, to select a television program for recording, etc. The non-guide applications that run on the set-top box may include applications such as an Internet browser application, a video-on-demand application, an interactive promotional channel application, a shopping application, an electronic mail application, an audio-on-demand application, a banking application, a data services application, a wagering application, etc.
The applications use set-top box resources such as a display resource, a user input interface resource, a tuner resource, a communications circuitry resource, a memory resource, etc. The program guide application has program guide resources such as a parental control resource, a graphics library resource, a pay program purchasing resource, a program guide database access resource, a scheduling resource, a tuning resource, a menu resource, etc. The program guide resources are higher level resources than the device resources and are provided as part of the program guide. A program guide application interface allows the non-guide applications to use both the device resources and the program guide resources.
In addition, the program guide application interface allows applications to register and maintains a list of such registered applications. A control request processor within the program guide application interface directs control requests and suspend requests from the applications to the primary application that is running on the set-top box. The primary application processes the control requests and suspend requests and determines whether to relinquish control to a requesting application or whether to suspend operation of the primary application.
The program guide application interface intercepts keystrokes and other user input and determines to which application such user input should be sent. During registration, applications may provide the program guide application interface with key lists that identify the keys that application desires to use when it is the active application and when it is a background application.
The program guide application interface resolves conflicts between various applications as the applications contend for shared resources. For example, the application interface may coordinate requests from different applications to use the same key or to simultaneously use the display. In resolving such conflicts, the application interface may take account of which resources may not be shared, which resources may be shared without restriction, and which resources may be shared only with the guidance of the application interface.